Believe it or not, but some people will pay less attention to the identity and references of their tenants than they normally do before letting some plumber in to their house. Such negligence can have serious repercussions. At times, the tenant may turn out to be a guy with a criminal background (or even worse, someone associated with a terrorist outfit) or a plain bully, making it hard for you to collect monthly rent on time or increasing rent when it’s due. Needless to say, it’s quite hard to force these tenants to leave once you’ve let them in. On the other hand, something as simple as contacting the tenant’s previous landlords and inquiring about the tenant can save you from innumerable troubles in the future. However, that’s not the only check you need to perform, there are many others such as checking bankruptcy records, criminal record check, liens & judgments, credit history or checking in the list of registered sex offenders.

You can start from doing some verification from their previous landlords, employer or neighbors. Don’t write off this background screening process as being overly-vigilant, there’s nothing wrong in protecting you and your property from the troublemakers or miscreants of any kind. in a way that it accumulates all of the required information about the tenants including their identification, whereabouts, rental history, employment details and credit history. Do not start verifying the information for each of these applications though; you should only check those applicants that you have short listed.

Pay special attention to the person who doesn’t appear local, ask and verify for the reason of moving into that specific area. However, all of this verification or screening process should be carried out on non-discriminatory basis and solely for your own satisfaction. You should also inform the tenant that you will verify the information provided by them, remember there are various laws protecting the tenant’s rights. An honest tenant should have no issues with all of this screening; in fact the vigilance of landlord will leave a good impression on them. Do not set inflexible standards though, for example, you may not be ready to compromise on criminal background or incessantly bad credit history, however you can consider becoming a little lax on requisites like family size.

The Fair Housing Act not only abolishes discrimination against African-Americans, but against different races as a whole. The act basically commands that nobody should discriminate a person based on his race when it comes to owning a house. The act mostly covers housing but there are exemptions to it as well. Exemptions from the coverage of the law involves those owner-occupied buildings that do not exceed four units, single family housing that was sold or rented without the help of a broker and also housings that is operated by an organization that limits its occupancy to its members only.

It is not only directly taking part in the discrimination that is covered by the Fair Housing Act, but it also covers the accomplices. The act prohibits any person from coercing, threatening, intimidating or interfering anybody who is exercising a fair housing right, even those persons assisting other people excising the fair housing right. Advertisings should not also be discriminatory, having preference based on race, national origin, color, sex, religion, status and handicap. Such acts are considered illegal and will be dealt by law accordingly. Aside form African-Americans, disabled person also benefit greatly from the Fair Housing Act. This acts as an additional protection for the disables especially towards landlords. Landlords cannot refuse a disabled person from modifying some of the dwelling structure so that it could aid him in his daily activities.

It is everybody’s right to have a house. Everyone has a right to live out the American dream and have a place to call their own. Despite of race, national origin, color, sex, religion, status and handicap, citizens of the United States of America should be able to own or rent a house and the Fair Housing Act makes them able to do so. Nothing and no one has the right to deprive anyone of achieving to possess their own house especially if this will be for the shelter of the whole family. A good home adds up to the esteem of the whole household and gives a better sense of security and protection to everyone.